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Bills' defense needs to start fast in LA

LOS ANGELES -- The Bills traveled across the country on Saturday for this afternoon's game against the Rams at the LA Coliseum. Some teams tend to start slow in these games. But it will certainly help if the Bills get off to a fast start, especially on defense.

In their wins over the Cardinals and Patriots, they set the tone for victory with suffocating defense, holding the Cardinals to seven points and shutting out the Patriots. Arizona had eight first downs and 86 offensive yards in the first half; the Pats had two first downs and 98 offensive yards.

If you put those two halves together into a single game, here's how the Bills' defensive stats would look against two teams that made it to conference title games last season: Seven points, 10 first downs, 184 total yards of offense, 25 rushes for 79 yards (3.2 per attempt), 10-for-21 passing for 130 yards. They allowed one offensive play over 11 yards in the two halves and held the Pats and Cards to 2 of 13 on third downs.

You'd think the Bills could have a similar effort against a Rams offense that is last in the NFL in total offense, yards per play and first downs. They might need to, because Buffalo's offense isn't likely to march up and down the field against a powerful LA defense.

Jerry Sullivan – Jerry Sullivan spent 16 years as The Buffalo News' lead columnist on the Bills. He loves the NBA, Strat-o-Matic baseball, Tom Waits and reading novels, along with the usual periodicals.